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New to Windows: how do i connect to the internets?

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Brinks

New Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2008
I just finished my very first PC build. Everything booted fine and XP installed without a hitch. First step was to install drivers, but before that get connected to the internet.
That's where I ran into my problem. I have a Terayon TJ715 modem connected to an Apple Airport Extreme router, which is broadcasting wirelessly to 3 Macs just fine. The router is connected to the PC via Ethernet. The Ethernet port on the PC displays a green LED on the left but a flashing amber light on the right.
I'm running XP Pro SP2 (can't update to SP3 w/o internet) and I must say, I'm a complete newb when it comes to Windows (this will be my first Microsoft OS). How do I go about connecting to the internet?
As of right now, the router is up to date, but I don't know about the modem, and the XP install is fresh without any updates/drivers.
Oh and I installed the Airport Utility for windows but it wouldn't recognize the Airport Base Station.
My ISP is Charter Communications
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Have you installed drivers for your motherboard? If the drivers for the ethernet port aren't installed you wouldn't be able to get online but the lights could still be flashing. With XP on a wired connection, all you have to do is plug the cable in and if you're connected to a router, you're set.
 
Thanks for the advice. Installed the latest mobo drivers (gigabyte ga-ep35-ds3l) off the gigabyte website. I rebooted the modem and router but still no connection. Airport Utility still doesn't display the base station. No internet.
 
Airport utility is useless if you don't have a wireless card. You're using a wire and the ethernet driver is most likely not installed.

Use the CD that came with your motherboard to install it or download it on one of your macs from gigabytes website (I'd give you a link but their website is giving me sas right now). To tell if the ethernet driver is up, you can click Start > Control Panel > (ensure you are in classic view) Network connections (something like that),and in there it should list the adapters you have and if they are connected, disconnected, etc.
 
You can also right-click on my computer, click manage. On the left pane click device manager. Look for any question/exclamation marks. If it's on a network adapter, it would tell you that you have a problem with your driver. Either update the driver, or uninstall it, reboot, then reinstall it.
 
You can also right-click on my computer, click manage. On the left pane click device manager. Look for any question/exclamation marks. If it's on a network adapter, it would tell you that you have a problem with your driver. Either update the driver, or uninstall it, reboot, then reinstall it.

This is exactly what I would do to check for wired network adapter driver issues. Regardless of the version installed, if theres something newer on gigabytes site I would download and install it. If theres an exclamation point on the network adapter, this means you MUST download a driver before it will work.

If it looks like the wired network adapter driver is fine, I would go to start>run and type cmd then hit enter to get a command prompt. From the command prompt you want to type ipconfig then hit enter, and it should list an ipaddress. If you don't have a valid IP address, DHCP may not be running on the airport and you may need to check its config. Any ip address other than 0.0.0.0 and 169.254.x.x is valid, pretty much. (169.254 just means windows couldn't get a real IP from the network)

Other than that, we'll need more info if you still have issues and we could have more feedback for you. By the way, the green light means it detects the network connection has power - thats your link light. The blinking amber means there is communication trying to take place - thats your activity light. I don't know if theres MAC filtering for wired connections on the Airport base station, but you would get a link and activity light even if MAC filtering is turned on, but you would not get a valid IP address. If MAC filtering or DHCP is a problem, you could correct this by connecting to the airports configuration page from one of the macs.
 
Reinstalling network adapter driver did the trick. Thanks for all the help guys.
 
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